With the green light given late on Sunday afternoon I made the trip to East Moline Sunday night for the finale of the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series weekend tripleheader. After two nights on the quarter-mile in Davenport Joe Kosiski's Late Model series crossed the river for its first-ever appearance on the tight high banked quarter-mile that is now known as "The Bullring at Rock Island County Fairgrounds". Seems like a word is missing there, but hey it's still catchy.
Arriving just after hot laps had been completed I saw that the high sun and the steady west wind had left turns three and four dry and dusty. Turns one and two seemed to be in their normal conditions where drivers could run low, high and in between, but if you slid off the bottom on the other end you were kicking up a dust cloud and losing ground. Frankly, I was starting to regret making the trip!
However, after the heat races had concluded the track crew took a half hour to carefully apply the right amount of water to only turns three and four before packing it in with the Sport Mod feature field and let's just say that it was time well spent. A half hour earlier I had considered getting up and leaving, but instead I stayed for every lap of the five feature races and I was thoroughly entertained throughout.
If you look at the score sheets you will see that Jarrett Franzen was the leader for all fifteen laps on his way to victory, but that would short you on the story for the Sport Mod main event. Only one caution interrupted the action and that came after two laps were scored when Logan Cumby, who had pulled all the way up from Quincy, spun in turn two. While the race was under green Franzen was hounded throughout by Jared Waterman and with three laps remaining Waterman had briefly taken the lead from Franzen down the back stretch. Jarrett pulled off the perfect crossover move in turns three and four to regain the lead and on the final set of turns Waterman had a great run off the top of turn four.
If the finish line had been ten feet further down the track the win would have been Waterman's, but it would be Franzen who would be back in victory lane for the fourth time this season here proudly proclaiming "The Bullring" as being his favorite track. Ogden, Iowa's Cam Reimers started seventh and was right there waiting for an opening that was never provided by the lead duo as he finished in a close third. Dustin Schram came from the back of the sixteen car field after having to change a flat tire just before the race went green. Fifth row starter Chance Huston completed the top five.
The Street Stock feature was up next and the story on this one was very similar to the Sport Mods as Zach Zuberbier and Rob Henry battled it out in a non-stop twenty lap affair. Zuberbier was hugging the bottom on both ends while Henry used a higher line and this one would test the scorers as they crossed the stripe literally door-to-door lap after lap during the first half of the race. From my angle on the top row of the big grandstand and down toward turn one I had Zuberbier in the lead for the first four laps. Henry had him by a nose on laps five and six before Zach returned to the front for two more laps and Henry was a nose ahead again on lap nine.
Zuberbier would return to the point on lap ten and, once a lapped car forced Henry to abandon his line for half a lap, that was all that the driver who made the 112 mile pull in from Kingston, Illinois, needed to secure the win. Henry was close behind in second, Joe Bonney finished third, Robert Cottam finished fourth and Jesse Owen was fifth.
Forty laps for the SLMR Late Models would follow and it would be the night's quickest in qualifying, Jeff Tharp taking the early leading after starting from the outside of row one. Fourth starting Tad Pospisil was on the move though and after disposing of pole-sitter Darrel DeFrance to take second, the visitor from Norfolk, Nebraska, now had his sights set on the leader. On lap eleven Pospisil drove it into turn three just a little deeper, made the pivot on the remaining moisture midway up the track in turn four, and then sailed around Tharp to take lead down the front straightaway.
This race also went non-stop and as Pospisil pulled away for the $5,000 winner's paycheck, the battle for second proved to interesting over the final laps with Tharp fending off DeFrance for the runner-up honors. Andrew Kosiski was solid in fourth and Matt Ryan settled for fifth after looking like an early challenger. In victory lane Pospisil noted how much the night had changed as hehad spun out in turn four during qualifying in this his first visit to East Moline.
Much of the crowd left after the Late Models, but they really should have stuck around for the Sport Compacts. With twenty-one of them set to do battle for fifteen laps I just knew that it would be a show and the four cylinder buzz bombs did not disappoint. This one would actually turn into a battle between three Peoria area drivers, but before we get to that there were three cautions along the way. The first came on lap two for Shane Kelley who was still having issues after losing his right front wheel while leading his heat race earlier in the evening.
A three car pileup in turn four on lap five sent Josh Lane back to the pits on the hook and the final caution waved on lap eight when Travis Hawkins stopped at the bottom of turn four. After starting third Jay Mariuzza had powered to the lead on the opening lap and I had a sense that he wanted to avenge a final turn door slam that had taken a heat race win from him earlier in the night. Nick Johnson was able to slip by Mariuzza on lap nine though and soon Jimmy Dutlinger followed Johnson into second. Dutlinger would squeeze past Johnson to take the lead with two laps remaining and after taking the white flag Johnson smacked the new leader square on the rear bumper as he entered turn one for the final time.
The contact put Dutlinger sideways and as he scrambled to maintain control Johnson went low and Mariuzza went to the top. Johnson would take the lead heading down the back stretch and he would hear a few boos from the remaining crowd as he celebrated the win in victory lane. Dutlinger held off Mariuzza to salvage second with local drivers Brandon Dahl and Drew Wise filling out the top five. I didn't catch the date, but I did hear that the Compacts will be racing for $1,000-to-win here sometime in the coming weeks. That should be very interesting!
I'm sure that there was some disappointment that only eleven IMCA Modifieds signed in with $1,000 up for grabs on this night, but they too ran nearly a perfect twenty laps with the only caution coming on lap six for a Steve Gustaf spin. Ageless veteran Jim Sandusky would take the lead from Casey Franks on lap three and would go the rest of the way to take the wealthy win holding off a late charge from Brandon Durbin. Franks was solid in third, Eric Barnes finished fourth and Craig Crawford completed the top five.
Not only were all five features fun to watch, they were all completed by 9 p.m. making for a twilight trip home to southeast Iowa. It was a nice save by The Bullring track crew after a dry and dirty start to the evening.
My current workload will likely keep me from making another Wednesday night trip to Stuart this week, but I will be locked and loaded for two nights of Sprint Invaders action this weekend with Friday at The Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and Saturday at 34 Raceway west of Burlington.
Get out and enjoy an event near you as the regular season is winding down fast!
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